Henry Berkwood // Adam McKinnon

The full moon would occur in less than a week and Xander was still nowhere with finding the lost Miss Urquart. It boiled his blood a little that a woman would be so good at hiding from him, as well as the fact that there was potential danger about the transformation. Still, he had to make his reports to the boss.

He knocked on the door, standing as tall as he dared. "Excuse me, Mr. McKinnon. Are we ready for the meeting?" Xander held up the papers that he had (recently) finished working on. It was always nerve-wracking to meet with the boss--the one trouble that Xander usually had with others was that he did, actually, want the boss to like him. It was just that he was also not great at remembering the best way to do that while he was on a mission.

---

Adam's greatest difficulty at work, it turned out, was keeping his desk organized. There seemed to be a never-ending stream of paperwork crossing his desk these days, and while he didn't really have much to complain about--he'd wanted this, after all--it felt like he spent a lot of time shuffling things on his desk around so there was some semblance of order.

When Stanwell entered, it was just after one such reorganizations, so Adam at least didn't feel like he was embarrassing himself in front of his subordinates. "Mr. Stanwell. Yes, of course, come in."

---

Xander straightened up, holding his reports close to his chest. He entered the office and took a seat, holding them up.

"I have the [Name] case, the [Name] case, and the [Name] case, but they're all in order." Xander said, "What I was hoping to discuss was the Urquart case."

It was Xander's own personal shame that this young woman had managed to escape him, a fully trained member of the Werewolf Capture Unit. He knew it was somewhat high profile, but still hoped that somehow he would be able to solve it. No such luck.

Worst case scenario, she roamed the streets right under his nose. The best case, of course, was that she had left the country and was now someone else's problem. He doubted he would be so lucky.

"I'm not certain what the best step to take next is. I've already attempted to see if others have seen her without luck, and thankfully there hasn't been news of any new attacks." Xander let out a deep sigh as he placed the report on Mr. McKinnon's desk.

---

Adam sighed. Truly, he didn't envy the werewolf capture unit their job. A transformed werewolf was a fearsome thing by itself, and one in hiding during the rest of the month was indistinguishable from any other person. The fact that the unit had any success was testament to their overall competency.

"No new attacks are good news," Adam agreed. Perhaps Miss Urquart had left the country. Perhaps she'd simply found a secure-enough place to spend her transformations. Neither was ideal--one was just moving the problem somewhere else, which rankled Adam on a moral level. The other was a potential disaster waiting to happen--but it would at least explain their current failure. Adam hadn't known Minister Urquart personally, but he'd had a good deal of respect for the man, and he'd hope that his daughter might have inherited some of his better traits. But, well, hiding from the Ministry like this didn't exactly {i]scream[/i] upstanding citizen, did it?

"You've done good work, Stanwell," Adam said. "I don't think we can give up at this point, but we've at least covered a lot of ground." For what that was worth.

---

Xander had some doubts about what he could do about this particular issue. He was only one man, after all, and as much as he attempted to keep up with his work as well as keep it separate, this case was one that seemed to be following him around.

"Thank you, sir." Xander said. It was a little heartening to know that he wasn't going in to work every day for nothing. Maybe one of these days he would even manage to turn up some kind of lead, a family friend who slipped up or potioneers selling beauty potions to a woman who seemed just a little too familiar.

"Do you think...perhaps we should be talking to other departments about this?" Xander knew he was jumping a little. It had only been a few months, but there had to be some law or legal loophole that could be used to solve the problem. Even if it would cost Xander the personal glory of having captured the werewolf himself.

"Or perhaps not." Xander said, thinking it was probably best not to let one of those snobby Aurors get involved.

---

"Maybe not yet," Adam said, grimacing. Perhaps it was the wrong decision, but the thought of needing to use even more of the Ministry's resources to track down a single girl seemed... excessive in a way that rankled. Adam wasn't sure if this was pragmatism or pride, but either way the result was the same, he supposed. "We'll keep it open as an option."

---

Xander nodded even though he was a little bit frustrated with the reply. There was a reason he wasn't the boss, and it was mostly his own youth and experience. Definitely nothing to do with the fact that he was likely to run off after things that he had no business running off after.

"Okay." Xander acknowledged, "I supposed I should get back to the reports, then."

Xander turned to leave the office.

---

Adam nodded. "Thank you for your report," Adam said in dismissal. He turned back to the work on his desk. There was always more to be done.

---